Today many parents recognize the value of their children learning another language. It opens kids up to other cultures, enhances many of their academic skills and in the future, opens up job prospects. But developmentally, what’s the best time to learn a second language? Kendall King, co-author of The Bilingual Edge says “right now”. “Research suggests that younger children, 2, 3, 4 years of age, for instance, show advantages in terms of their ultimate level of attainment, that is, how good their accent is going to sound at the end of a language learning process. However, slighting older children, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and above are going to tend to make faster process than those younger children, so they have advantages as well, in part because they’re more mature, they’re able to access more complex cognitive mechanisms to learn the language. so parents shouldn’t worry if their child is 5, 6, 7 that they’ve missed the boat.”

The Parent Report’s guest expert is Kendall King, co-author of The Bilingual Edge.

Adapted from The Parent Report Radio Show. Any advice or information contained herein should never be a substitute for professional and/or medical advice, diagnosis and treatment. For more information please review Terms of Service.